There were plans to go to Sitges, which is a lovely little seaside town south of Barcelona. However, due to 120kmph winds, there was a problem with the trains and so that was a big fat no go. We replaced this with a trip to Mcdonalds and the cinema. Not a bad replacement after all.
The last trip to Barcelona was probably the most jam packed day in Barcelona I've had to date, and it was spent in 'fabulous' company. Emily and I took Pierre (our year abroad bear who is slowly making his way around Europe) around some of the sights of the greatest city on Earth. We took the cable car up to Montjuic where we went around the Olympic Stadium. The views from the cable car were spectacular although it's definitely not for the faint hearted as the cars are fairly small and rickety. We then ventured down through Placa Espanya and to the metro to head over to the other side of the city. We were briefly separated in a moment of panic, but we all saw the funny side, including the delightful onlookers on the metro, some of whom thought it was hilarious. Anyway, once reunited we headed over to Parc Guell which is another of Antoní Gaudí's wonderful creations. It's was so warm up there, but that may have been because of the million steps that you have to climb to get up there! Nonetheless, it was certainly worth it and Pierre thought it was great. The day ended on a romantic stroll down the beach followed by some lovely cocktails in the sunset before heading back to Vic for another week of school.
This week at school has been rather...different. This is because we were celebrating Carnival (Carnaval). I'm not entirely sure what this is or why exactly but I'll give explaining it a go. Basically it's our equivalent to Pancake day(!) whereby it's the last days of craziness and partying before 6/7 weeks of being well behaved before Easter comes. This means that for 1 week, Carnestoltes (the weird carnival king) gives out themes and instructions for the children to do each day. For example, on Tuesday we had to wear sport clothes, on Wednesday we had to prepare a ball (I'm not sure why but all the kids brought in balls), on Thursday we had to bring in or make a medal (mine said 'Best English Speaker') and on Friday it was fancy dress (I was a cowboy). It was a week of fun at school but it did just seem like the Spanish were looking for an excuse to party.
Speaking of which, although this takes place in schools, in the evenings there are activities and parades for the adults and the kids. The biggest Carnaval celebration near to where I live is in Torelló, about 15 minutes away. This place normally has a population of about 13,000 but over this weekend, it reached about 100,000. On Friday night, there was a great big party in the town. This consisted of a vehicle pulling a giant DJ set around and blasting out music. We very appropriately nicknamed this 'The Party Bus'. The theme for this night was Senyoretes i Homenots where the boys and men dress as girls and the girls and women dress as boys. It was a fantastic night of partying in the streets with all the crazy Catalans. The next night was just a simple fancy dress and parade. Now we didn't dress up but we did paint our faces with Union Jacks, which caused more confusion than expected as people didn't seem to know what country it represented. (HELLO...OLYMPICS/GOLDEN JUBILEE!) Anyway, we went along, not really knowing what to expect. What greeted us were huge and elaborate floats made by the locals, each blasting out more music and therefore being followed by thousands of dressed up crazy people. The atmosphere was electric and the floats were amazing, and quite frankly, crazy. We're not too sure where they came from or what the reasoning is behind the floats but it was great nonetheless! It's been one CRAZY week.
